NORTH CANTON − City officials are opening up about what led to Patrick DeOrio losing his job as the city’s administrator.
Two officials told Mayor Stephan Wilder that it appeared their then-boss DeOrio was inappropriately trying to help a client of DeOrio’s private financial advisory business get a contract providing software to the city.
Related: ‘A strange situation.’ North Canton’s ex-administrator suddenly fired instead of retired
Benjamin Young, the city’s IT systems analyst and Catherine Farina, the city’s then-deputy director of administration, alleged in a meeting with Wilder on March 5 that DeOrio resisted recusing himself from discussions about North Canton using software that was to be provided by a business owned by his decades-long client.
Young and Farina, now the city’s acting director of administration, said they heard DeOrio say in late February that the city would use the company’s software.
“I was surprised. I was disappointed from what I was hearing,” said Wilder. “This had to be stopped.”
Wilder on March 6 placed DeOrio on paid leave and gave him a choice of resigning or being fired from his $140,715-a-year position as director of administration. After DeOrio opted for retirement, the mayor announced March 20 that he was firing DeOrio for not submitting a letter of resignation and deleting files from his city-issued phone.
Young, Farina and Wilder in a recent interview elaborated on what led to DeOrio’s sudden departure. They released some related documents after the Canton Repository made a public records request for memos, emails and text messages related to DeOrio’s dismissal.
Related: North Canton mayor: Patrick DeOrio leaves city hall as part of voluntary retirement
Patrick DeOrio’s side on his leaving North Canton
Calling the matter a “complete misunderstanding,” DeOrio denied any conflict of interest, providing special treatment or promising the city would adopt the vendor’s app.
“No laws were broken. No ethics were violated,” he said. “There were no promises of a contract. … I received nothing of value from this.”
The city’s attorney accused him of disregarding the mayor’s instruction to immediately return his city-issued phone and abruptly leaving his meeting with the mayor and deleting the files.
DeOrio said he was on leave so he thought he had a few days to return the phone in the condition in which he had received it.
Young discovered in late February that DeOrio, whom Young thought was recusing himself from the city’s dealings with the vendor owned by DeOrio’s client, provided a testimonial on behalf of that company of his client that was offering to provide software to the city. DeOrio’s testimonial was on the company’s flyer that used North Canton’s logo. Young felt the flyer falsely suggested that the city had a contract with the company.
The flyer referred to the “upcoming implementation” of its software in North Canton and said, it “will transform the way North Canton addresses community issues.”
The company said the city’s logo was used merely “to identify the case study which did not mention the city had chosen the software.”
DeOrio said city attorney Wayne Boyer approved DeOrio providing a “very innocuous testimonial” that “didn’t endorse any product.”
Boyer in an email wrote he didn’t object to DeOrio providing a testimonial as a private individual. But Boyer didn’t see the testimonial in advance. And the attorney said he would not have approved a testimonial with the city’s logo suggesting the city had retained the vendor, when it had not, that identified DeOrio as North Canton’s director of administration, which the flyer did.
Boyer said based on the Ohio Ethic Commissions’ guidance that dismissal of DeOrio was sufficient, the city has not referred the matter to the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office.
‘Fear of reprisal’
DeOrio in December asked Young to meet with the software vendor’s owner, who was offering to make an app for the city for free. The app would accept requests for service from residents such as to address a pothole and notify city officials of residents’ reports. If the app was successful, the owner could sell the app to other cities.
It was at that meeting at Tremont Coffee that the vendor rep mentioned that DeOrio was her financial adviser. Young met with her at least four times in January and February.
In a memo to the mayor, Young indicated he was not impressed with the company’s software, which he said used a simple web form. He also questioned the value of DeOrio holding a four-hour meeting of city department heads on Jan. 24 to meet with DeOrio’s client about what features they wanted in the app.
Young also felt the city needed software to manage the city’s assets and vehicles. For example, it would alert officials when a vehicle needed an oil change. But DeOrio’s client told DeOrio that if such asset management features were to be included in the app with 59 city employees as users, the app would no longer be free. The cost of licensing third-party software would cost the city $33,000 to $44,000, money the vendor said she would not get.
After the four-hour meeting, Young brought up DeOrio’s potential conflicts of interest with Farina and eventually the city’s attorney Scott Zurkowski. Young did not yet confront DeOrio or share his concerns about the vendor’s software due to the “fear of reprisal,” which DeOrio later said was ridiculous.
Zurkowski said he didn’t think DeOrio had violated any ethics rules, but DeOrio should recuse himself from any future discussions with the vendor, according to a memo Young wrote to the mayor.
Young who later said, “I felt we were getting too close to a line,” said he told DeOrio on Feb. 21 that he should recuse himself from the project due to his relationship with the vendor. He contended the city needed to get quotes from other software companies and suspend work with DeOrio’s client.
DeOrio agreed, said Young.
But DeOrio later said that while he should not negotiate a contract with the vendor on behalf of the city, he still felt he could continue to discuss the app’s development with his client who owned the vendor.
DeOrio did not cancel a scheduled meeting on Feb. 27 with the vendor. Young attended thinking DeOrio would tell the vendor DeOrio was stepping back from the project and work on the app was on hold. Instead, Young said that DeOrio told the vendor something to the effect of, “I’m letting Ben get other quotes but I’ll pick you anyway, don’t worry.”
DeOrio denied saying this. He said he had favored pulling the plug on the project if it was going to cost the city money.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ethics concerns led to North Canton’s firing of Patrick DeOrio
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